Vatican Diary / New Senators in the Curia. a Ranking

The Chiesa
April 25, 2012

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350230?eng=y


After the latest appointments, here are the cardinals with the largest number of positions in the central offices of the Church. Among the curia, Bertone, Ouellet, and Levada. Among the residential cardinals, Scola and George

VATICAN CITY, April 25, 2012 – On Saturday April 21, a little more than two months after the last concistory, the new cardinals were finally assigned their positions as members of the various dicasteries of the Roman curia, the most important of which are the nine congregations.

This procedure indicates the real and specific influence of each cardinal in assisting Benedict XVI in the governance of the universal Church.

The decision to number a cardinal among the members of a dicastery belongs to the pope, but an important role in this kind of decision is played by the secretariat of state, headed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, while more secondary and not infrequently nonexistent is the influence of the prefect of the congregation that is receiving the new appointee.

The most prestigious congregation of the Roman curia is the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, to which three of the new cardinals have been appointed: the Indian George Alencherry, the leading archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, and the Italian curia members Fernando Filoni, prefect of "Propaganda Fide," and Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the pontifical council for legislative texts.

But the congregations with the greatest influence in the life of the Catholic Church are those that assist the pope most closely in the selection of new bishops. And these are the congregation for bishops (for the dioceses of Europe and the Americas, the Philippines and Australia), for the Eastern Churches (for Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and India), and for the evangelization of peoples (for the dioceses in mission territory, above all in Africa and Asia).

Four of the new cardinals, all of them from the curia, have been selected as members of the congregation for bishops. They are the Portuguese Manuel Monteiro de Castro, until January the secretary of this same dicastery and now the major penitentiary, the Spaniard Santos Abril y Castelló, archpriest of the basilica of Saint Mary Major, and the Italians Giuseppe Bertello, president of the governorate of Vatican City, and Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the prefecture of economic affairs of the Holy See.

All four of these churchmen, and Versaldi in particular, are highly esteemed by Cardinal Bertone. Monteiro, Abril, and Bertello have been apostolic nuncios. Abril and Bertello have also been appointed as members of "Propaganda Fide."

Bertello and Versaldi, like Bertone and Giovanni Lajolo, who are already members, come from Piedmont, bringing to four the number of members who come from this region of Italy and making it the one most represented in the congregation for bishops, followed by Liguria with two members.

In this dicastery, headed by the Canadian Marc Ouellet, out of 33 members, 29 of whom are cardinals and four bishops, the Italians are ten in all, with eight cardinals and two bishops. The other nations most represented are the United States with four, Germany and Spain with three, and France and Poland with two.

Also on April 21, two supplementary appointments were announced, those of cardainls Angelo Scola of Milan and Donald W. Wuerl of Washington as members of the congregation for the doctrine for the faith.

Scola, who last March 7 was also included among the members of the congregation for the Eastern Churches, with this last appointment becomes, together with cardinal of Chicago Francis E. George, the cardinal of a residential diocese who is present in the largest number of Roman congregations: no fewer than four of them, being already a member of those for divine worship and for the clergy. For his part, George is a member of the congregations for the Eastern Churches, for the clergy, for religious, and for the evangelization of peoples.

The other residential cardinals with the most positions in the curia are, with three congregations each: president of the Italian bishops and archbishop of Genoa Angelo Bagnasco (Eastern, worship, bishops), archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge M. Bergoglio (worship, clergy, religious), archbishop of Cologne Joachim Meisner (worship, bishops, clergy), emeritus of Westminster – who will turn 80 on August 24 – Cormac Murphy O'Connor (worship, clergy, "Propaganda"), president of the Spanish bishops and archbishop of Madrid Antonio Maria Rouco Varela (bishops, clergy, Catholic education), president of the Austrian bishops and archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schönborn (faith, Eastern, education), emeritus of Milan Dionigi Tettamanzi (Eastern, clergy, education), and vicar general of Rome Agostino Vallini (saints, bishops, religious).

It is to be noted that while Bagnasco, Meisner, Rouco Varela, and Vallini are part of it, Bergoglio, Schonborn, and Tettamanzi (but Scola as well) are not members of the congregation for bishops.

As for the cardinals of the curia, the one most present in the most important dicasteries is Bertone, with no fewer than six memberships (faith, Eastern, worship, bishops, clergy, "Propaganda") in addition to the leadership of the secretariat of state. Followed by, with five, the prefect of the congregation for bishops, Ouellet (also a member of faith, Eastern, worship, clergy, education) and of the congregation for the doctrine of faith, William J. Levada (also in Eastern, saints, bishops, education, "Propaganda"). And then, with four, the prefect of divine worship, Antonio Cañizares Llovera (also in faith, saints, bishops, and "Propaganda") and of Catholic education, Zenon Grocholewski (also in faith, worship, bishops, and "Propaganda").

Finally, a curiosity is to be pointed out. The canonical norms establish that all cardinals are relieved of their positions in the curia when they turn eighty years old, but Benedict XVI suspended this ecclesiastical law on April 21 when he enrolled new Romanian cardinal Lucian Muresan, who will turn 81 next May 23, among the members of the congregation for the Eastern Churches.